#dry up

1246/2000

JLPT: N2

School Grade: Junior high school

This character is a combination of 木 tree and 古 old. Here 古 is a phonetic element signaling the on’yomi. Some say that 古 developed from the image of a skull, giving it a meaning of something hard and old. It is likely lending that connotation here, giving 枯 a meaning of an old, hard, dried up tree. This then symbolizes “decaying” and “withering” in a more general sense.